The swift ratification of the Paris Agreement by the USA – and especially by China – has caught the EU off guard and risks excluding the bloc from a key decision-making body that will be instituted at the next Conference of the Parties in Marrakesh (COP22), diplomats told EurActiv.

The EU was until now seen – and often decried at home – for being the undisputed leader in the global push to address climate change.

But European diplomats today agree there is a real risk that the bloc will be excluded from decision-making related to the implementation of the agreement, once it comes into force.

This would be a major humiliation that the vast majority of EU countries want to avoid.

CMA without the EU?

In a stunt never attempted before, EU countries will make efforts to speed up the ratification of the Paris deal through national parliaments by 7 October.

EU ambassadors met on Wednesday (21 September) to discuss the embarrassing situation the EU got itself into and forge the way forward.

European Union environment ministers will try next week to overcome an embarrassing delay in the bloc’s approval of the landmark Paris accord on global warming that Europe has long championed, Slovakia said on Wednesday.

The stakes are higher than they seem. Once the Paris deal enters into force, the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement, known as the CMA, will make decisions under the agreement.

The CMA will formally take office at the COP22 in Marrakesh, on 7-18 November. Put simply, it will be the group responsible for supervising the Paris deal. But if EU countries don’t ratify the Paris Agreement on time, it might well be founded without a European representative in it.

In short, this means that countries which have ratified – including China and the US – would be making decisions on implementing the Paris Agreement that have a direct impact on Europe, without the bloc being represented.

China ratification took EU by surprise

As one senior EU diplomat explained, it was the ratification of the Paris deal by China that took Europe by surprise.

The Paris deal on slashing greenhouse gas emissions, which has the backing of nearly 200 countries, takes effect once at least 55 nations making up at least 55% of global carbon dioxide emissions ratify it.

By Wednesday the total number of ratifications had reached 60, representing more than 47.5% of emissions. Those that have ratified include China and the United States, the world’s two biggest carbon dioxide emitters.

The US has strived to ratify the Paris Agreement while Barack Obama was still in office, avoiding the risk that Donald Trump, who has denied the man-made causes of climate change, comes to the Oval office.

But more surprisingly for the EU, China, a “not-so-green” country, also ratified the Paris deal.

The United States has joined China to formally ratify the Paris agreement to curb climate-warming emissions, the world’s two biggest economies said on Saturday, which could help put the pact into force before the end of the year.

The Slovak parliament today voted today (21 September) to ratify the Paris Agreement, the landmark international treaty in the fight against climate change. After France, Hungary and Austria, Slovakia, who holds the rotating presidency of the EU, is the fourth country to ratify the deal.

The European Parliament has to ratify the Paris deal too, something that should happen without problem on 4 October.

But some European capitals are not happy that ratification at EU level will come ahead of ratification by the national parliaments. It is expected that a Statement by the Council and the Commission would be adopted, stressing that the European Parliament vote is “sui generis” and will not constitute a precedent for future EU-decision-making..

The “usual suspect” who could derail the ratification is Poland, which wants guarantees on how the EU will share out the burden of delivering on the Paris accord before committing to ratify it.

EU unable to keep its promises?

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker last week described the EU’s slow ratification of the climate deal as “ridiculous” and damaging to the bloc’s credibility.

The inability of the EU’s member states to agree on an effort-sharing deal could delay the ratification of the Paris Agreement until late 2017. This would see the climate deal enter into force without the world’s biggest economic bloc. EurActiv France reports.

Dutch voters on Wednesday (6 April) rejected a European pact with Ukraine in a referendum seen as a barometer of anti-EU feeling, dealing an embarrassing blow to the government in charge of the rotating EU presidency, sending shockwaves throughout the Union.

EXCLUSIVE / Bulgaria and Romania find it very difficult to ratify the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada which was concluded in 2014, because of the refusal by Ottawa to lift the visa requirement for their nationals, and propose the accord to be postponed.